What’s wrong with moral relativism? Gita 16.08

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. Today we live in a world of moral relativism where people increasingly say that if you think something is wrong then that’s wrong for you but that’s not necessarily wrong for me.
So morality has been increasingly relativized. However, what is the result of such things that immorality becomes increasingly difficult to identify. So in one culture say wrong doers are burnt alive and they say this is what our culture, our tradition tells us to do and this is what we are going to do.
And can we say that this is right? What is right and what is wrong, unless it is identified, how can we move forward? So morality becomes tough to, morality and immorality become very tough to identify because everything becomes subjective. And then it’s only when somebody agrees that something is wrong, then it can be corrected. So suppose, if we consider we are driving on a road and while driving on the road, if somebody says, oh, you can have your traffic rules, I’ll have my traffic rules.
There will be chaos. If somebody is driving on the wrong lane, they will just say that, oh, that is your idea that the lane is wrong. For me, it’s the right lane.
So it becomes, wrong lane becomes very, it becomes tougher even to rectify. Even if somebody wants to correct themselves, how do they even know what is correct? How do they go about rectifying it? If they are not even sure, if they are not even able to identify it clearly. And rectifying involves a conscious effort to correct the consequences of the wrong we are doing.
Sometimes, we may be morally relativistic, but then, when certain choices lead to catastrophic consequences, then we may decide, no, I don’t want to do this. We may rectify ourselves. But those same tendencies may, same conditionings may keep pushing us to do the same, push to the immoral things again and again.
So, ultimately, immorality needs to be purified. And moral relativism doesn’t hold anything as pure or anything as impure, because purity itself is considered to be relative. And thus, contact with the all-pure divine, which is the most powerful way to purify ourselves of our immoral urges, that becomes unavailable to people.
And thus, immorality becomes extremely difficult, becomes toughest to purify. And thus, people stay lost in inner confusion or inner confrontation, in which they just get lost. So, we need to have a clear moral trajectory.
The Bhagavad Gita cautions us against moral relativism when it states that, असत्यम् पतिष्ठं ते जगदाः रणीश्वरं अपरस्परसं भूतं किमन्यत् कामहै तुकं At once, we reject the idea of any ultimate reality, any foundational truth, any overseeing divine. Then, whatever gives us pleasure becomes the sole barometer for deciding what is right and wrong. And this is 16.8 and 16.9 states, एतां द्रिष्टिम वश्टभ्या नश्टात्मानो अल्पबुद्धया प्रभवन्त्य उग्र कर्मान अक्षयाय जगतो हे तहां Once such a vision is accepted, then everything becomes ruined.
People act in ways that will destroy themselves and will destroy the world. So, the Bhagavad Gita is ready to rescue us, to protect us from moral relativism by giving us a spiritual worldview, which shows us morality not just as arbitrary but morality as that pathway which enables us to live a richer, a deeper, a more spiritual and more meaningful and fulfilling life. And thus, with spiritual wisdom, we can go beyond moral relativism.
Thank you.